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This book is incredible. While not quite as good as the Drawing of Three in my opinion, the Gunslinger is still a great quick read. The ending of this story both confused and fascinated me. I formerly avoided King's works, thinking he only wrote horror, but the Gunslinger made me an instant fan. I'm currently reading Full Dark No Stars as a result of this book.

Entombing. This is the only way I can describe this book in one word. I was raised on Spaghetti Westerns and Mary Poppins. The Dark Tower series is a mash-up of the elements that made up those films. The thrill of the kill and the arresting personalities of the old western characters. Then the bizarre fantastical feeling that Julie Andrews brought with her umbrella and carpet bag to Cherry Tree Lane. You are stuck in that world for maybe a week or more after reading The Gunslinger. Roland, the gunslinger, is one of those legendary book characters you can hardly find anymore. He has the aloof factor that leaves you absolutely smitten when you get to see even a sliver of his inner life. You're so focused on the amazing story that you hardly notice the phenomenal writing. You know you have a good book in your hands when the writing isn't just writing. It's so fluid that you're not reading it anymore, you're watching it. If you were buried alive by this book you'll be damned by the next.

"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed."

King had me from there and never let go, even through the insanity of the later books. This was nothing like I'd ever read before back when I first read it in high school and I stand by that statement here. This is a fantasy that is more like a Western but is also horrific. It's a slow burn here, a real slow burn, and there are far more questions than answers but you can't help but get behind Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger. You can't help but get attached to Jake Chambers, and you can't help but want the Man in Black dead even though you don't quite get why. I'm thrilled to be taking this journey again and I'm more than pumped for the upcoming film as well.

Sending chills down my spine, this opening line drew me into yet another Stephen King novel and into the worlds of The Dark Tower series. I have read and reread it numerous times, and am anxiously awaiting the movie release! If you are looking for sometimes new to try, give The Gunslinger a go.

First read this series years ago and couldn't put it down. It seemed to be a pleasant change from Stephen King's usual style. I have read the series three times and hope the movie does it justice.
Apart from the Lord of the Rings series, Dark Tower by King and the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Donaldson are the only series of books that I could not put down for any length of time. The style of writing invited me into the story and had me live it with the characters.

Western Fantasy at its best! I read it every few years and will probably end up reading it again before the big screen version arrives. This book only has a few, very forgivable, failings. The story, like others in the series, avoids providing too much exposition to the lore and history of Roland. It's understandable, as most of that is revealed with the sequel books in the series. It still holds up on its own, and it works even better as an introduction to the epic. If you enjoy low-magic fantasy, high adventure, or westerns, you will love the Gunslinger and its sequels.

This is a good start to an epic series. Stephen King started writing segments of this book while he was still in college, so some of the writing is a bit jumbled and confused, but it really gives you a good foundation in theme and in story for the series. This is what King calls his 'Lord of the Rings', it is an epic fantasy series well worth the time and effort.

Reading this was rather painful. I didn't know what was going on but King's writing has improved immeasurably since 1982 cause this was a jumbled acid trip of a book where, when you finally get the man in black talking all his trippydippy universe stuff it's like in Lost when their man in black is yapping and Jacob is yapping but really you just want to know where the polar bear came from and you never will cause the people who wrote it in don't even know.

I read this book because the movie is coming out; I'm not even ashamed to admit that. I'm pretty excited to see how Idris plays as Roland in the new movie, even though I know a lot of die-hard fans aren't. This is the first Stephen King book I've read since Doctor Sleep, not because I don't enjoy him but because I can only take him in small doses. He has a very particular writing style and it's not always my favorite.

In The Gunslinger, I felt King was trying to change up his style a bit. I appreciated the variety and can see where he took inspiration from Terry Brooks and others I have read. This was one of the first books of his that I was able to finish in less than two days. The plot was difficult to follow on occasion due to the timeline jumping; After I got the feel of it, I didn't have much of a problem following along. It did suck in the beginning since I would have to flip back a few pages to figure out what I missed (something I almost never do). I enjoyed the characters, but even Roland felt flat at some points. I'm guessing the series gets better as it goes since it has such a following. I just wasn't 'wowed'. I'll read the rest because I'm interested but it's not on the top of my list.